Erlend K

I don't like capitalism, but in the short-mid term I view it the same way Chirchill viewed democracy: It's the worst system ever deviced, except for all the alternatives. There are a lot of unknowns about the future of the global economy, but barring any major unexpected shocks (like nuclear war/major revolutions) we can expect the current trends to continue in the short term: -Increased concentration of whealth among a few companies and individuals. A decade ago the richest 60-80 people or so in the world owned as much as the bottom 50 %. Today the number has shrunk to the richest 8 people. The trend seams likely to continue for a while. -Automatication/robotication will lead to mass unemployment. Experts disagree on how fast this trend will be, but most agree that most jobs will be taken over by machines sometime by the middle of this century. The only plausible results of this seams to be some kind of universal salary, assuming liberal democracies will have the income to provide this. If most of the cutting edge AI tech is owned by Chinese state-owned companies and a handfull capitalists with residency in tax paradises, I'm not sure how most governments are going to afford this universal sallary. -China will complete it's "One Belt One Road Initiative", and take over as the major global economic power. This might lead to a spread of it's model of totalitarian mixed-economy, as liberal democratic capitalism will be shown uncapable at competing with the chinese model. For instance the chineese government has set a strategic goal of becoming world leading in AI, and is investing massively it. At the same time the US government is cutting is funding of AI. China is expanding it's foreign networks at the same the US is withdrawing from the global stage and slashing funding for its state department, etc. The jokers here are chinas massive dept and real estate bubble, but as long as the governent avoid mass unrest, these might just be speed bumps. -Renewable energy will gradualy replace carbon based energy. In the mid-term this will likely result in a price war between the major oil producers, as each oil producing country want to make sure that as little of their own oil/gas is left worthless in the ground when the oil age ends, by the mid 21'st century. Crashing oil prizes will likely lead to an economic boom in most non-oil producing countries as the cost of manufacturing will drop. -Global warming will pass 1,5 degrees sometime in the 2030's, and 2 degrees in the 2040's, and it's most serious effects will start kicking in. This will lead to major costs for western governments that might already be under economic strain form the transfer to a post-work society with a universal sallary. In addition it is expected to result in one of the largest reffuge crises in history. The UN estimates about 100 million climate reffugees by 2050. Commin on top of the other major economic transitions of the period this wil be massively disruptive. -A massive technology boost in what is expected to be the three major tech areas of the 21'st century: Nanotech, Biotech and AI. It is really impossible to predict how thech disruptions will transform the economy in the mid- to long term. The long term: The mid-late 21'st century and the 22'nd century: Completely is impossible to predict. Genetic engineering and AI-brain integration will transform our descendants into a different kind of creature with different desires and abilities than us. What kind of economic system these creatures will form is impossible for lower creatures like us to predict.

The most important difference between CBT and NLP is that CBT actually works in the real world. NLP has been thouroughy tested in controlled trials and found to not be supperior to placibo threatment. This is the reason why modern therapists still use CBT, but has completely ditched NLP.

Of the mbpi only the extrovertion - introvertion scale has any empirical corrolation with anything that matters in real life, like behaviour and mental health. The three other indicators are mostly considered bullshit by most modern psychiatrists. The big 5 is generaly considered a more useful clasification. Generaly it is not very useful to try to understand yourself by finding some label like the mbpi types to describe yourself with. These are all normaly distributed with the majority of people lying close to the average on each dimention and only a minority of people having a clear "type" on any indicator.

Social anxiety is a phobia. There are no quick fixes for phobias. Psychadelics are risky and can often make thibgs worse. The only reliable solution to a phobia is gradual exposure. You just have to force yourself to socialize even tho it scares you, and gradualy get used to taking bigger and bigger social risks. There are a few things you can do to reduce the feelings of anxiety and make the exposure easier. The main one is weight lifing. Especialy with heavy weights like powerlifting 5x5. Avoid high gi carbs and coffeine, stay hydrated at all times, drink green/herbal teas, practice progressive muscle relaxation. If the condition is severe medicine would be a better option than psychadelics for most people. Espessially a maoi like Nardil the "Gold standard" for treating social anxiety. I dont get the impression that your problems are that severe tho. Anyways, the only sustainable solution is exposure. Everything rlse is just tp aid your exposure. Good luck on your journey!

@Charlotte whats your source for this? I'm pretty sure you are misinformed. Unless you have problems with colestorole decaf is very healthy. Decaf is full of antioxidants, magnesium, potassium and other excellent micronutrients. For most people it's a health drink.

If the coffein is a problem, you could just swich to decaf.

There are some sd practices that most mature people who takes their lives seriously do, like physical exercise, keeping a healthy diet, trying to achieve some kind of mastery in their work, see a therapist to work on emotional issues or relationshop issues (If one have any that needs working on) etc. For most people its possible to live a great life without ever studying sd. The main predictors of happiness/well being over ones life are well documented through longitudinal studies. The two main ones are health and the quality of ones social relationships. After this comes gratitude for what one has, being present to the moment and mastery and meaning from the activities one spend a lot of time on (=work/career for most of us). Everything else is frosting on the cake and not nessesary for enjoying life. Imo, sd is useful to the degree it helps us achieve or strengthen these basics. If you enjoy it, it can be a great hobby. For me its the most fun and engaging hobby I have ever found.

I agree with Mark that sd can become a form of mental masturbation, where the very act of studying self-development gives one the feeling of developing one self, and becomes a substitute for actualy doing the hard work of implementing healthier, more constructive habits in the real world. I disagree with his main agrument tho, that "the ultimate goal of all self-improvement is to reach the point where you no longer feel the need to improve yourself." For me, and I assume many others who enjoy this lifestyle, sd more of a direction than a destination. The ultimate goal of practicing tennis or the piano is not to reach the point where you no longer need to practice. The practice is the whole point. It's about having something to put time and effort into that feels engaging and meaningful to you.

Culadasa likes to explain this by pointing to the difference between the center of your gaze and your perepheral vision. If you put your hand up in front of your eyes and gaze at it, you are know concentrating on that hand. At the same time you are also aware of the background in your peripheral vision. If your mindfulness is decent you might also be aware of background sounds, subtle body sensations, your though stream etc, while you keep your concentration fixed on your hand.

Accountants is one if those jobs that are predicted by overwhelming probability to be replaced by AI's within the next decade or so. You should make it a top priority to make a plan for abandoning that sinking ship asap.

For me a snob is someone who think that becourse he belong to the upper social class he is supperior to people in lower classes and have some need to demonstrate abd get acnowledged for this supremicy.

Daniel Ingram claims arhatship (classical Buddhist fourth-path enlightenment) and he works as a doctor in an emergency room.

Various psychologists have defined "self-actualization" is many different ways. It generaly has to do with the prosess of reaching for your full human potential, but there are no clear consesus on what the term means. Wether or not this label fits the work you are doing to improve your lifestyle or personalityis irrelevant. Just find out what areas of your lifestyle or personality you deep down feel most motivated to work on, and begin there, where you are.

In retreats its normal to swich between sitting meditation and walking meditation. Sitting for too long isnt good for you body. Walking meditation is a great suppliment to sitting, and a powerful form of meditation in its own right. You might do 60 min sitting, 30 min walking.

Enlightenment is an extremly long term goal. Many spend decades in monestaries without attaining it. From the way you describe your situation, this could easily be spiritual bypassing: using spiritual practices as a way to avoid the pain/hussle of having to deal pragmaticaly with your problems. I would definately try to revert your time to handeling your shit before investing more time and effort trying to get enlighened. Enlightenment is not some magical cure to all problems. It is simply fully waking up to the life you are living already. In the words of Buddhist teatcher Daniel Ingram "first make sure you have a life you actually want to wake up to".

At some point you have to simply choose a "life purpose". The answer is to pick something difficult, that you have a natural talent for and is in alignment with your values. Then just go all inn. Over time you will gain mastery and learn to get into flow while working, and it it will become a purpose.

Obviously nothing is objectively better than anything else. When we talk avout "better" it is understud that we mean subjectively better. As in higher quality of life, more direction/purpose and meaning, more mastery over the activities ypu value, higher happiness, more love, sense of interconnection, awe, wonder, feeling at home in the world, peace of mind, autonomy, sence of belonging and everything else 99% of us value.

If you start using some will power ob making yourself act in a more loving way, the neural pathways for this behaviour will be strenghtened, and over time loving behaviour will come more natural for you. At the same time, you can train yourself to see people in a better light by training yourself to look for the good/what you like in others and try to really like them. Its a slow process, tho. Also anything that boosts your serotenine levels or improves your vagus nerve, including metta meditation, will make it easier to spontaniously get loving feelings towards others.

Thank you for posting this link. That is a great list!

-Physical exersice -Healthy, plant-based diet -A minimum of 7, preferably 8, houres of sleep every night. -Novel experiences. f.i.. travel -Spend time in nature -Spend time dealing with something complex and unpredictable -Vibe with other people -Do some kind of depth therapy like psychodynamic therapy -Find a person who need help and help him -Avoid people who create drama, and avoid creating drama yourself.

You can't force the judgement to stop. The mind is not a single, coherent system, but a society of different subsystems. The subsystem that passes judgement is an entirely different system than the one that wants to stop judging. The main point is to realise that these judgements are not your fault, and just something the mind does on its own. The way you change the functioning of subminds, ouside of direct conscious control, is by finding some way to train them, the same way you would train a wild animal. Step one is being mindful that judging is happening. Step two might be something like cbt. It depends on the details tho. Can you give some recent examples of times you have judged others?

I'm not sure what this process is, but my view is that our value hierarchy is not something we sit down and think out in a rational way. We are very likely to end up with a list that sounds good, and that we would like to have. What we actualy, deep down, value the most, is something to be gradualy discovered by paying attention to what feels valueable/important as we go through our day to day life.

Absolutely not! Being an entrepreneur is a highly stressful job that can create significant emotional turbulence. Even tho our society hails enteepreneurship, it's not a path that fits most people. For a guy with your emotional issues it might be an error to seek this path. There are studies showing that etrepreneurs experience more stress and anxiety than employees. They also have quite high depression- and suiciderates. Just do a quick google search on entrepreneur+mental health. The risk of failure is about 75 % for venture-backed startups fail, according to a Harvard Business School study. If you chose this path expect failure as the norm, and success as something that might happen through the right combination on luck and very hard, smart work. Having no capital and no work experience in the fitnes business, I would not recomend you to jump straight into entrepreneurship any time soo . You should definately seek to get independent from your parents tho. The best path forward for you might be to seek a job within fitness and gain some more insight into the buiness from the inside, and look for some missing nieche there would be a marked for.

A lot of "spiritual people" are simply using spiritual practices and language as an identity. These people tend to feel that their lifestyle and imagined insights make them supperior to "normal people". Hence they feel justified to treat others as inferiors. The only true master I have spent time with is Culadasa, and he absolutely radiates kindness. Hes a truely great guy. From what I understand, the wast majority of serious spiritual masters/teachers are like that: They seem to radiate kindness and non-judgmentalism.

I only read political news. Real politics, and espessially geopolitics have been one of my major passions since junior high school. I used to spend way too much time reading books and articles on politics, trying to understand everythinh that was moving, but the last year I have managed to cut down the time spent on it to about 4-8 hours a week, mostly in newsweek and on international politics sites, depending on what else I have got going on.